Open Letter to MEChA
From Comisión Permanente Ayotzinapa
TONATIERRA
Good greetings. One of the most significant moments in the decades long history of the relationship between TONATIERRA and MEChA as a community based Indigenous Peoples organization was the opportunity to present at the National MEChA conference at UCLA in 2019.
We were given the opportunity to share with MEChA the report on the solidarity work we have realized with the parents and communities of the 43 Ayotzinapa students forcibly disappeared on September 26, 2014, in Iguala, Guerrero.
Today, after seven years the search for justice for Ayotzinapa continues. We call upon MEChA to stand once again in International Solidarity with the demands by the parents of the missing students for justice and accountability.
On September 26, 2014, in the town of Iguala, Guerrero in Mexico, 43 students from the rural teacher preparation school of Ayotzinapa were Forcibly Disappeared by federal and local police agents of the Mexican state. Six others were killed that night, including three students and three innocent bystanders shot and killed when the Mexican army attacked the bus the students were taking to Mexico City. The 43 Ayotzinapa students were unarmed, they were on their way to participate in the commemoration of the massacre of the students in Tlaltelolco Square in 1968. Unknown to the students, was the fact that the bus they were on was also carrying a contraband load of heroin for delivery to the US, in Atlanta and Chicago.
The military and police agents were sent by the cartels of the narco-state in Mexico to recover the heroin, at any cost.
Now, seven years later, the parents, families, and the community of the Ayotzinapa continue to demand accountability and justice not only for the 43 Ayotzinapa students, but also for the tens of thousands of victims of killed and disappeared in Mexico under the shroud of the US backed “War on Drugs” and the US financed Plan Merida Mexico.
As we have consistently done over the past seven years on a monthly basis, TONATIERRA will be organizing a public action in front of the Mexican Consulate in Phoenix, Arizona in coordination and complement to the mobilizations of solidarity in Mexico and across the world from Saturday September 25 to Sunday September 26. Being a weekend, the event in Arizona will synchronize with a Vigil for Justice in New York City in front of the Mexican Consulate beginning Saturday the 25th at 8:00 PM EST, and close with a March for Justice led by local MEChA students on Sunday the 26th of September. The March for Justice is being planned for 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM Arizona MST.
We make this call to all of the MEChA chapters across the country to join with us in the campaign to bring the light of justice to the cause of the 43 Ayotzinapa students.
If you are interested in following up with this message, contact:
Comisión Permanente Ayotzinapa
TONATIERRA
Tupac Enrique Acosta
26 septiembre 2014 – 26 septiembre 2021
Solidaridad Internacional
Comisión Permanente Ayotzinapa
Phoenix, Arizona
